Maidstone 3-27 Beckenham

BECKENHAM continued their recent their run of good form by beating a below par Maidstone at Mote Park in conditions ideal for rugby.

With the Beckenham front five dominating the set pieces and the loose forwards dominating the breakdown, the home side were under pressure from the kick-off.

The visitors’ backs and forwards combined well inside the Maidstone half to take it forward through several phases before Thorne broke through a now depleted defence to score the opening try after five minutes.

Beckenham dominated the next few exchanges, but gave away a series of penalties to relieve the pressure on the home side and it took another 15 minutes before they put another meaningful attack together.

Maidstone gave away a penalty for offside at the breakdown 10 metres from their own line and Thorne took the tap from Hill and spun out of the tackle to score a try which would have had the home coach fuming.

The conversion from Hewett left the score at 12 - 0.

Beckenham were straight back on the attack and with Whitehead and Hewett now pulling all the strings, a series of great runs by Benham, Morill, Sailor and Cleverley created several great scoring opportunities, which were wasted when poor distribution and “white line fever” kept the opposition within touching distance.

Maidstone took their first opportunity when a long range penalty awarded for handling at the ruck left the score at 12-3 to the visitors at the break.

Beckenham came out in the second half playing against the breeze and the slope and cleaned up their act in the discipline department.

As a result, they completely dominated the half as their superior fitness and organisation told.

With Pinn now taking all before him at the lineout, Beckenham set up a good platform but spurned several good scoring opportunities.

But Blake made amends for an earlier missed chance by finishing off a move which stretched the opposition defence beyond breaking point.

The conversion was missed, but this was the signal for the visitors to produce their best rugby of the day.

Again Beckenham’s forwards took the ball to the opposition line and as it was spun wide for what looked to be a certain score, the Maidstone full-back intercepted.

They inter-changed passes down the pitch, only to be stopped five metres from the visitors’ line by a fine covering tackle from the busy Rayner.

The ball was kept alive for what seemed an eternity as both sides took turns at attacking and turning the ball over, before Rayner popped up and intercepted on the halfway line and beat the cover to score the try of the game in the corner and take the score to 22-3.

With 20 minutes remaining, Beckenham looked in a position to rack up a few scores but the home side started to play some decent rugby of their own and it took some fine cover tackling by Fealey, Hill and Airey to keep them at bay.

With five minutes to go, the rampaging Hixson combined well with Archer to release the supporting Thorne, who capped off a man of the match performance and secure his hat-trick.

The game petered out without further incident with the final score at 27-3.

This Saturday Beckenham face Gravesend at Balmoral Avenue, Beckenham, in a mid-table clash at 2.30pm.